Curtis Herink is a professor of mathematics at Mercer University in Macon, GA. He has been teaching college mathematics full time since completing his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977.

Dan Taylor is an attorney and head coach of the North Central College Mock Trial team. He’s assisted by fellow Mock Trial alumnus Josh Bailey ’11. The team took first place at Quincy University’s annual Riverside Classic Mock Trial Tournament on October 20, the first of seven contests during fall and winter terms. Taylor teaches political science at North Central as an adjunct faculty member and is also owner and partner at Hubel & Taylor Ltd.

Emily Jane Kiekhofer Lockrem has served as a librarian at the Milpitas Christian School in San Jose, CA, for the past 12 years. Previously, she held a position as an assistant rare books librarian at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She received her master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in comparative literature and library sciences in 1976. She and her husband Peter reside in San Jose.

Callie Byers Celichowski was promoted to account executive for Covance Pharmaceutical in Madison, WI, a comprehensive drug development service company that conducts in vivo services, product discovery and translation services.

Jessica Goerke is an academic coordinator for the Georgia Institute of Technology football program. She is responsible for overseeing the eligibility requirements and degree completion of student-athletes by coordinating tutoring sessions, creating learning objectives, conducting study sessions and providing student-athletes with academic advising. She completed her master’s degree at the University of Akron in 2012.

Beth E. Hothan-Zielinski, M.D., is a general surgeon and owner and president of Surgical Services of Mount Pleasant. She graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School in 1981 and from St. Francis Medical Center in general surgery in 1986. She resides in Mount Pleasant, IA, with her husband James and two children, Patrick and Riley.

Tracie Morris, vice president of human resources for ComEd, was named a 2012 Company and Executive Woman Worth Watching by Diversity Journal. Morris was nominated by colleagues, peers and mentors for her initiative and achievements as a woman of diversity within her sphere of influence.

Keith Matune M ’10 was named the State of Illinois Law and Government Teacher of the Year by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago (CRFC). This is one of the most prestigious awards given to social studies teachers statewide. Matune has been a teacher at Lake Park High School in Roselle, IL, for the past nine years. He was proud to share this recognition with his father Walter, a retired social studies teacher from Downers Grove North High School, who won the award in 1997.

While no one in the early 1980s could’ve predicted advanced technologies like Ethernet systems in engineering projects, Phillip Burke III ’85 has adapted to the pace of change in aerospace engineering. A physics major and 3-2 engineering graduate from Washington University, Burke over the past 26 years has helped design testing systems used by military aircraft and other planes for McDonnell Douglas and The Boeing Company (which bought McDonnell Douglas in 2000). Today he is an engineer in F-15 support systems focusing on automatic test systems for avionics.